


Adventure Carnival

by protectoroffaeries



Category: Skulduggery Pleasant - Derek Landy
Genre: M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-03-26
Updated: 2016-03-26
Packaged: 2018-05-29 06:36:34
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,534
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/6363412
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/protectoroffaeries/pseuds/protectoroffaeries
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Fletcher just wants to spend the day at an amusement park. Caelan makes things difficult.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Adventure Carnival

**Author's Note:**

> It's an amusement park and a carnival combined, I think. I don't know. I've found that with this ship, it's better not to ask questions.
> 
> Written for shadedforests.
> 
> Warning: This ship is the absolute worst, trust me.

Fletcher loved amusement parks. He’d visited all the most famous ones around the world many times over. And so it wasn’t long after he started dating Caelan that he wanted to introduce his boyfriend them.

But, unsurprisingly enough, Caelan was not a big fan of amusement parks. The first time Fletcher suggested they go to one, he’d made up some bullshit about “too many people” and “not enough angst.”

Fletcher wasn’t giving up that easily, though. 

“Caelan,” he said on the morning he decided to put his plan into action, “I think we should go out today.”

“Go out? Where? For a romantic dinner?” Caelan, ever the eager one, nearly dropped a plate in excitement. Fletcher made a mental note to stop suggesting things when Caelan was doing the dishes – they’d lost a perfectly good glass when Fletcher had suggested they go the poetry night at the local café. 

“It’s a surprise,” said Fletcher, “but you should probably dress casually.”

Caelan gave him a skeptical look, but agreed to be ready by three.

***  
Caelan always spent an extra thirty minutes getting ready, which was something Fletcher learned to plan for not long after they started dating. At three thirty, they were ready to leave, with Caelan overdressed and Fletcher wondering how much he’d regret that after they started going on the rides.

Fletcher teleported them to Adventure Carnival (bypassing the entrance to avoid paying), and Caelan immediately turned on him, looking scandalized. “What are we doing here?”

“We’re going to have fun.”

“Fun?” Caelan glared at a small child with ice cream dripping down her face, and the girl’s mother pulled her away, glaring straight back at him. 

“Stop terrorizing the other patrons, Caelan. Come on, trust me, this will be fun.”

Caelan sighed heavily. What a drama queen, he was. Fletcher grabbed his arm and pulled him deeper into the park. Of course, Caelan could’ve wretched his arm away at any time, but Fletcher was pleased to find that he was willing to humor him.

“Okay, so first we’re going on this rollercoaster,” Fletcher explained, stopping at the end of a long line. “And then we can either go on some of the other rides or go play some carnival games. And then we should probably get some food – I think I’ll be hungry by then.”

“Why is it called Cheese Dragon?” Caelan asked, squinting up at the rollercoaster’s track. “It does not resemble cheese or dragons.”

Fletcher rolled his eyes. “That’s just its name. I don’t know where they come up with this stuff. All I know is that it’s fun.”

“And what is fun about being whipped around really fast high above the ground?”

“Everything,” Fletcher said, grinning. 

Caelan crossed his arms over his chest. “How long will this take?”

“Not very long.”

“The line looks long.”

“Looks can be deceiving.” 

As it turned out, looks were not deceiving in that instance. It took over an hour for them to come to the front of the line, and by then Caelan had squared off with the Goth girl in line behind them about who was more emo and made four nearby child cry just from his scowl. Fletcher regretted taking him out of the apartment, as he usually did, but they might as well go on the damn ride before he dragged the moronic vampire home.

They were lucky enough to get the very front of the coaster, which was styled to look vaguely like a dragon. (Caelan was not impressed with the rendering, however.) Caelan hissed as the safety bar came down across his lap. 

“This is stupid,” he muttered as the coaster was pulled up the track. 

“You’ve never even done this before, how do you know you won’t like it?”

“I was not born to be frivolous.”

“Well, maybe you shouldn’t have started dating me, then,” Fletcher grumbled. 

Caelan’s expression shifted from annoyed to mildly apologetic. He opened his mouth to say something, but the wind whipped his words away as the rollercoaster raced down the track. Fletcher laughed, the sudden rush of adrenaline making him feel as if he was on top of the world. 

Caelan, meanwhile, shrieked like a little girl in a horror film, which only made Fletcher laugh harder. Maybe that made him a bad boyfriend, but the fact that a supposedly tough vampire couldn’t handle a rollercoaster was highly amusing.

The coaster thundered around a loop, flipping them upside-down momentarily, and Caelan’s shriek grew in pitch. Fletcher couldn’t hardly look at him with all the force pressing against him, but he felt it when Caelan grabbed him and huddled as close as he could. Fletcher almost felt bad for him. Almost.

Far too quickly for Fletcher’s liking, the coaster pulled to a stop back where it had started. He looked over at Caelan, who peeked up from where he’d had his face pressed to Fletcher’s arm. Caelan jerked up abruptly, brushing himself off as the safety bar lifted and trying to look like the ride hadn’t phased him.

“What a pussy,” mumbled the Goth girl from earlier. Caelan snarled, but Fletcher gave him a look that stopped him from moving against her. Instead, they got off the ride and Caelan sulked as they walked away. 

“Okay, we can go now,” Fletcher sighed. “I know you don’t want to be here.”

“Wasn’t there something else you wanted to do?”

“Well, yeah. But I’ll come back with Val sometime. She actually likes these kinds of places.”

“You’ll come back here with Valkyrie,” Caelan repeated darkly, coming to a quick halt. “Why? What makes her a better companion than me?”

“She doesn’t make children cry or scream on the rollercoaster.”

Caelan huffed. “So you’ve been to one of these places with her before?”

“Back when we were dating, yes.”

Caelan grit his teeth, appearing rather menacing when he did so. Feral, even. “We’re going to have fun,” he said lowly. 

“It’s not that big of a–”

“Yes, it is. What do you want to do?”

“I hate it when you do this,” Fletcher snapped. The jealously was getting old quickly. Why couldn’t he just do things with Fletcher without having to one-up someone else? Well, Valkyrie would always have him beat in this department.

Fletcher stormed off toward the carnival games, vaguely aware that Caelan trailed behind him like a kicked puppy. Anger coiled low in his gut – now Caelan was trying to make him feel bad. It wasn’t happening.

“I’m sorry,” Caelan said eventually, lurking.

Fletcher, who was leaning against a carnival game, stared upward at the sky. “Whatever.”

“Fletcher, please.”

“No.”

“We can go play the games,” Caelan pleaded, desperate to try and salvage the day. 

“Fuck off, Caelan.” Maybe Fletcher took it a bit far, but Caelan always did this, and he was sick of it.

Caelan averted his eyes and wandered off in a direct Fletcher didn’t take note of. He hoped that Caelan wouldn’t harass anyone else, but it was a hollow sort of hope, like he knew that wasn’t going to happen.

Fletcher slid down the side of the game booth, sitting down on the littered ground. He picked up a cup that’d had been discarded without a care. Scowling, he tossed it at a nearby trash can. It bounced off the side. Another miss for the day, then. 

Fletcher sat there, head in his hands. This had been a mistake. Caelan just wasn’t cut out for these kinds of things, and Fletcher couldn’t make him become the kind of person that was. 

An undeterminable amount of time passed. When Fletcher had finally collected himself, he stood up and brushed himself off. 

“Fletcher.” Caelan returned, just as Fletcher was getting up. Great.

Except he was holding – was that a giant teddy bear? “Caelan, what the fuck is that?”

“I won it. At one of those game things.” Caelan held out the bear, which was probably the size of a five year old child. Fletcher reached out, laid a hand on it. It had white fur, soft to the touch, and a big, black nose. A colorful bowtie adorned its neck. 

“You actually played one?” Fletcher took the bear, shifting it so that he had a clear view of Caelan. He couldn’t believe that Caelan played, let alone won. 

“I played a few of them. It took me a while to figure them out. But then I won. For you. And I got the biggest bear. It’s the best prize.” Where Caelan got the idea that a stuffed animal was the best prize, Fletcher didn’t know, but the whole thing was touching all the same. 

“I can’t believe you did this,” Fletcher said aloud, a slow smile spreading across his face.

“I had to regain your favor somehow.”

“It worked.” Fletcher squeezed the bear. It smelled musty, probably from sitting on a shelf too long. He’d have to wash it when they got home. 

“So… would you like to go and do something?” Caelan asked tentatively.

“Yeah, let’s go get some cotton candy.” Caelan reached out, took Fletcher’s hand, and seemed to relax when Fletcher didn’t wrench it away. 

“What is cotton candy?” 

Fletcher laughed. They were going to be okay.

**Author's Note:**

> The bear's name is Marshmellow.


End file.
